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August 01, 2005

Most of us know gluttony to mean excess in eating or drinking. It can also be used to mean excessive intake of any kind.

So how does gluttony happen in marketing? Here’s how.

(I’ve seen this a hundred times if I’ve seen it once). A company executive or entrepreneur notices an apparently “hot” industry or market such as long distance phone service, diet colas, credit cards or dating web sites, etc.

They see many companies making tons of money doing this activity so they decide they’re going to get in on it.

They start to market their product. They may spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars promoting this new product.

Then shortly after they start marketing it, they wonder why they’re not selling as much as they thought they should. They wonder why everyone is not as excited about their product as their competitors and why they’re not yet cashing in on this extremely popular market.

The answer is they went into a market that was already saturated with providers with no game plan on how to differentiate themselves. In short, they lack creativity.

They wanted to partake of this seemingly giant pie. And they figured if they just bit into it, they’d reap the rewards.

Unfortunately with marketing, it’s not that simple.

You have to offer something that people want. If you have competition, you have to figure out a way to stand apart from them in a more appealing way to your potential customers. You should NEVER expect to get business just because you offer a good or even great product.

This is done by finding a niche within the market you’re after.

You find a niche that is not being serviced. Then you come up with a creative way to service that niche.

It’s a good idea to survey potential customers to find the niche you should go after and what they would want or expect from your product BEFORE embarking on a marketing campaign or even any product development.

Another way to avoid this sin is to get creative! Get creative and invent a service or product that caters to a market that is not being serviced. Why do you need to go into a business that a zillion other people are in anyway? Get creative!

Ultimately, gluttony in marketing is solved by not having to have part of every market you see. Get creative and make your own market.

------ Toli Cefail

Toli Cefail is a veteran marketer and is currently delivering marketing services to numerous small & medium businesses as a partner in In Touch Media Group (www.InTouchMediaGroup.com).